


Dark days Verita

by Rainbowmer



Category: Mako Mermaids
Genre: F/F, Feelings, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapped, Mild Blood, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:26:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27424192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbowmer/pseuds/Rainbowmer
Summary: This settles after the end of Mako mermaids season 3 or on netflix season 4. Rita went back to the pod, but also kept her life on land. She just could not leave them all behind, she loved to teach, but also loved someone else. Yet she never told anyone about the feelings she had for Veridia. While Veridia pretty much kept her feelings for herself too. Rita dragged Veridia a couple times with her on land, well she had been there but not outside of the grotto Rita lived in. Although she spent ninety percent of their time together, they don’t seem to get that they like each other. Luckily Rita wasn’t the principal of the school anymore, so that was one thing less to worry about. Instead she remained a spanish teacher for second and third grade students. Both Rita and Veridia hoped the other one would confess their feelings for the other.
Relationships: Rita Santos/Veridia
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

~Veridia~ Somewhere unknown

She woke up to a door slamming itself shut. Although she had no clue where on earth she was, she was pretty sure who that person could be, and why she was here in the first place. 

She had protected someone she cared about from getting taken by her worst fear. 

Veridia noticed that Dr. Ross was keeping an eye on Rita, and she was determined to keep him as far away as she could. He was catching on to her powers, and she didn’t even see it.

Rita could be a bit reckless sometimes, the main reason were the other mermaids that had spent so much time with her.

Now Ondina and Mimmi were back in our pod and Weilan was on her way back home, Rita finally had the house more quiet to herself.

Rita told them they could visit anytime, as long as they kept it clean.

Veridia slowly began pushing herself up, but she still wasn’t used to her legs. Those long damn, skinny sticks were pretty much useless to her. She preferred her own tail. 

Once Veridia was sitting up straight she noticed there wasn’t much in the room, other than a blanket humans used to keep themselves warm with.

After a couple aptemps Veridia managed to grab herself that blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders.

“I wish this never would have happened, I could be at her place right now. I even wonder if she misses me.” Veridia asked herself.

Why of course Rita missed her, they have been so much together the last couple of weeks. 

Hours went by, not that mermaids used the time often. We used the sun and the moon, and not read the clock like the humans did. 

The door opened itself from the other side, and that same man came inside. He closed the door and proceeded to ask me who Veridia was. 

“I am telling you nothing.” Veridia made herself clear, she wasn’t going to tell him anything. As long as it meant that Rita was safe from him. 

“Why did you protect that woman, Rita?” The man stood in front of the woman making himself look stronger.

“And why would you care about that? It’s not that you will let me go anyway.” Veridia kept her face neutrale. 

“As you wish, if you are not going to help me find out who she really is, you can rot for all I care.” The man was a scientist, determined to find out who the both really were. 

“And what is it that’s so special about Rita that you want to find out?” She had asked him, maybe he hadn’t caught on that she was one too. 

Maybe there was a way for her to get out and warn Rita about him. 

“Suddenly you care about that woman, there must be something you know?” He asked Veridia. 

“Not much, I haven’t seen her in so long. We separated ways long ago due to a stupid agrument we had.” Veridia got sad, she was thinking about that day Rita got outcast from the pod. She remembered her crying, begging her not to do this. 

The scientist’s face went mad and he walked out and locked the door. Veridia sighed, how could she save Rita when he didn’t tell her what he knew about her. 

“I just hope Rita is safe.” Veridia told herself and moved her useless legs up to her chest. She wrapped the blanket around them and casually sat there until he would return to her.

~Rita~ At Rita’s place

Rita sat her bag down next to the dining table she actually never used that much, she preferred grading her paper outside. 

She opened her secret door downstairs and hoped Veridia would already be waiting for her. When Rita turned around the corner she saw that the grotto was empty. Not even Poseidon was here at the moment. 

“Veridia?” Rita asked out loud, maybe she was in the moon pool? Rita got worried. 

On the other side, Veridia could she be out in the sea, minding her own business. 

Rita settled down on the couch, grabbing the book she was certainly reading. Deep down she hoped Veridia would appear within the hour, she really could use her support right now. 

The first few pages were interesting, but so were the hours. Veridia still hadn’t turned up and it was already dark outside. 

Rita’s mind paced back and forwarth. ‘Did she do anything wrong yesterday? Or did she need some time for herself? Did something happen at the pod? Or was she hurt?’. 

Questions like that crossed her mind, as she couldn’t decide whether it was her fault or something had happened to Veridia. 

Normally Rita was the last person to think it was her fault, but she hadn’t seen Veridia in such a long time, or even been this close to her again. She had the urge to tell her about the feelings that were growing inside her. 

The last time she saw Veridia was when she confessed she was in love with Harry. Right after his death she was so lonely, she wished everyday that Veridia would show up and ask her to come back to the pod. 

She knew that wasn’t going to happen, nowhere in a thousand years. Rita was a traitor to the pod. 

Rita tried many times since seeing Veridia again. Something kept her from telling ‘I still love you’ to Veridia. 

The smallest part in her head said no, but even she couldn’t figure out why it said no. She just hoped Veridia was doing fine and was somewhere dealing with a small issue Mimmi or Ondina probably had caused. 

Rita laughed at that last part. The times she had to clean up their messes. She had lost count at twelve or something like that. 

Veridia would turn up eventually, she could take care of herself. As it already was so late Rita decided to go to bed. Hoping to find Veridia in the morning downstairs in the grotto. 

Luckily she did not have to be in school tomorrow.


	2. darkness

~Rita~ At Rita’s place

How could Veridia still not have turned up? Rita questioned everything at this point. She had to mentally stop herself from torturing herself even more.

“Hey Rita, how are you?” Mimmi appeared in front of Rita, getting her out of her mind. “Hey Mimmi, didn’t see you there? How are you doing?” Rita asked the girl as she sat herself down on a chair. 

“I’m pretty sure I asked you first.” Mimmi laughed. “Oh sorry, my mind was somewhere else I believe.” Rita told her. She was going to add “But I’m not sure where that may be.” but she changed her mind and did not tell her that.

“I’ve been busy, and things are just a bit stressed. How are you? How’s Zac and Nerrisa?” I asked her.

“I’m fine and so is Zac. Mom is a bit worried lately, that’s why I’m here.” She said. “What is it that Nerissa is worrying about, I’m sure she does not need to worry.” Rita told Mimmi. 

“No, I think she needs to worry, and I think you need to. We haven’t seen Veridia for over two days. She did not show up last night.” Mimmi told me. Rita’s heart skipped a beat. Veridia was actually nowhere to be found. “That’s why she didn’t appear yesterday, normally she comes here to talk with me.” Rita was truly past the fact it was her fault, someone else was added to this.

“Yeah we know that, so that means you haven’t seen her either. We are starting to think it’s someone on land who might have found her interesting.” Mimmi added. She could be right. Dr. Ross still was a marine biologist and was on the lookout for something new in the sea.

“I have a friend at the marine park, you remember him. Dr. Ross and I know each other from some field trips we made to the park with the school.” Rita’s face moved over to look at the sea. 

“Do you think he has something to do with Veridia’s disappearance?” Mimmi asked, but she also kinda knew her answer. 

“I have no clue, anyone could’ve done this. I just hope she is doing fine.” Rita’s voice was low. She couldn’t bear to think Veridia was somewhere locked up or even worse hurt. 

“I’ll leave you now, just come to us when you want to talk or know something. Remember, you are part of our pod now.” Mimmi smiled and left the table. 

She was right, Rita was once again part of the pod again. Veridia was the main reason for her being there. She loved every moment we got to spend together. 

~Veridia~ Somewhere unknown

Veridia noticed the man bringing in more blanket, a pillow and even a bigger pillow. “It will get cold tonight, just make yourself comfortable.” The man told Veridia and left once again. 

Veridia should have known better, land people couldn’t be trusted. Once she got over to the stuff he had brought in she settled down on this large pillow.

She was sure she once heard Rita call this a mattress. Land people always slept on them. But Veridia couldn’t see why. She just didn’t have the choice to sleep in water, so this had to do for now.

She moved everything to her liking and moved on her side. She closed her eyes, and just wished Rita would figure out where on earth she was. Once these events were over, she would confess to Rita about her feelings. 

She did not want this to happen again, ever. So Veridia hoped Rita would come back to the pod forever, being at her side. 

So far Veridia only had dreamt about dating her again. Only this time they would end up growing old together. Rita being a teacher for young hatchlings and me being the head of our pod. Together side by side taking control. 

Veridia moved her mind again to her certain state. Being locked up somewhere dark and cold wasn’t the most pleasant thing there was. 

She opened her eyes once more and gazed into the darkness of the room.

She had never felt this way before. Empty and so alone. No sounds or flowing air. She could only imagine it being there, while none of it existed. 

Veridia was too stubborn to close her eyes and fall asleep. She rather stayed up all night, thinking about how she was going to get out of here. She was also low on magic.

Missing magic was actually for the better. What if he caught her doing magic? She would be locked in here forever. Even if Rita would find her after that, she would be in trouble too.

In every possible way Veridia would keep Rita out of this. She was not going to let him touch her, even if that meant she would be locked in here. Even unsure if she would see the sun or the moon. As long as Rita was safe, she would live with herself being here.

~Unknown person~ Somewhere unknown

This woman was unbelievable. He couldn’t figure out whether she cared for Rita or actually was trying to figure out herself what that woman was. 

Rita started to catch my eye when she was always avoiding water, or running away when the sprinklers went off. He saw her one time with a girl, both running away.

He never saw that girl in school before. Students told him she was her niece, in some kind of way.

The man made his way over to the cameras, which he had in the room he kept the woman. Mainly just for keeping an eye on her. 

To his surprise the woman remained calm and was now sleeping. It looked like she didn’t have anything to hide from him. Yet he couldn’t let her go, what if she warned Rita about him. He would for sure be arrested for kidnapping and stalking people.

He grabbed his phone and texted his boss, who ordered him to question her. She preferred to call her by her code name. ‘Odysseia’. 

It was some kind of forneign name, but the meaning was different in all languages.

He opened a new text and gave her more details about what he had reached, which wasn’t that much. The woman hadn’t said much.

He had to make up some stuff so she wouldn’t be too made at him. Although lying was maybe even worse for him, he could lose something he cared about. 

She had threatened his life before, and was capable of doing it yet again.

For some reason he was scared, but just not in a normal way. The woman looked like she could be a demon, one that escaped hell.

The man received back a text, with further instructions. He had to make the woman talk, giving him the information they needed. For them Rita unexplored ground, and they wanted to be the first to know what she was. 

He had his bets on some kind of witch, and she was thinking about a mermaid.

Which he found oddly specific. 

~Rita~ In the hidden Grotto

Once they didn’t need Rita in school anymore she walked home, and went straight down to the hidden grotto. Poseidon joined her. He spent the first ten minutes demanding pets.

At least he knew how hard this was for Rita, she gave her some distraction. Once he noticed Mimmi he jumped from Rita's lap and hissed at her. Running away as far as could go.

Mimmi came back to her, telling that they were looking for Veridia in the sea and on Mako.

Worse case scenario someone took her on land and kept her away from the sea.

If they kept Veridia on land this could mean she was in serious trouble. It worried Rita even more, this wasn’t like Veridia at all. 

She would keep her nose out of the trouble, and ‘walk’ the other way, rather swim.

Rita’s mind drifted back to Veridia, when she had last seen her. Rita tried to remember if there was anything Veridia mentioned to her.

“There must be something she told me.” Rita asked herself. “I have to remember something.” She added.

At this point she was angry with herself, her short term memory was so bad.

A shiny object caught Rita’s eye when she turned her head. Rita grabbed it, and took a closer look.

“She lost her moon ring.” Rita was sure this was Veridia’s moon ring, there was no doubt in it. She placed the ring on her own finger, to make sure she wasn’t going to lose it like Veridia did.

Yet again, how did she lose her own moon ring? Did she do this on purpose?

Here was Rita again, asking herself questions but no answers where available to her. 

Weilan and Ondina had made their way into the grotto, so Rita decided to leave them and walked up to her room. 

Rita also knew isolating herself from the rest wasn’t going to help Veridia, she just needed the time to think what could have happened to the mermaid she loved.

(Odysseia meaning in greek: Wrathful, wandering)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was aiming for 2000 words, yet I only came to around 1500 words. Things didn't add up.  
> next chapter won't be far away. Exams are almost over.  
> ideas for the story are always welcome, or tips for better writting.


	3. Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rewrote this chapter with the help of a friend, I hope this version is better. I kept the original version too.

the next day

~Rita~ in her room

Her alarm goes off. With a groan Rita opened her eyes, she looked at her alarm clock that was still ringing to get her out of the comfortable bed and off to her job. Today was different though. She wouldn’t be there waiting for her after she finished a long day's work. No more reward. 

Alone again.

With a sigh, Rita threw the covers from her and made the bed needly and got dressed for the day. After she got dressed she grabbed her bag and left the room to go to the kitchen. 

She forgot to eat yesterday, her body yearned for some food. She took a container of leftovers and warmed it up quickly. The fried rice with prawns looked delicious but it tasted of nothing but disappointment. She walked to the bin and spit it out, the remainder in the container followed. 

She noticed her stomach was still complaining a lot, Rita tried eating but she just couldn’t.

The same questions flew through her head, they were hunting her.

“I can’t do this.” Rita whispered to herself, and tears started to fill up her eyes. She was normally not this emotional, but Veridia was a whole different story. 

She started loving her ever since the day they met each other, and now she was missing. Rita couldn’t get it over her heart not to think about her. Veridia could be in an awful lot of trouble, and she could not help her get out of it.

In a rash decision Rita took her phone and called the school. Her assistant answered. 

“Principal Santos’ office, how can I help you?” She said. “Yes, hello Oliva. I have to inform you that I won’t be at the school today. I’m feeling quite under the weather.” Rita lied. 

“Oh no that’s terrible news. I don’t think you ever had a sick day since I’ve worked here.” Oliva said, sounding worried. Rita felt terrible lying to her but she just couldn’t go to work today. 

“Yes, hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow.” She tried to reassure her assistant. They said their goodbyes and hung up.

Rita didn’t explain much, so they had barely anything to go off what could have caused it that she didn’t feel well.

Rita made her way back to her room, she was about to turn the corner as she heard the voices of the young mermaids echo through the room. She halts at the entrance, not sure if she was in the mood to see them right now.

There were moments they had something useful to tell Rita or the others, but most of the times they were talking about either Zac or the ocean cafe.

“I’m worried, Rita hasn’t shown her face in a while.” Mimmi started. There is a pause. “I think she misses Veridia.” The mermaid added sounding worried.

Rita couldn’t help but smile. It was sweet that Mimmi picked up on that. Only Ondina thought differently about it.

“Why would she miss Veridia?” Ondina asked dismissively. It was no secret that Ondina still didn’t like Veridia, Rita wondered why. After all She let them come back to the pod and accepted Zac.

Yet, it wasn’t enough to Ondina, it looked like she wanted more, but Rita failed to see why she wanted more.

“They are friends, Ondina. Now Veridia and the pod are back. She at least has some of her old friends back.” Weiland told Ondina.

Weilan joined in the conversation, which was a surprise. She wasn’t exactly the person to gossip about stuff, that’s the way Rita knew her. Besides, she only met Veridia once or twice if Rita could remember correctly.

“I think it’s more than being friends, Rita told me Veridia would often come by to talk to her. Something tells me they are more than old friends from the pod.” Mimmi giggled.

Rita felt her cheeks burn up when Mimmi said ‘more than just friends’. She wished that she could have told Veridia that before she disappeared. 

Rita slowly moved back to her room and sat down next to the window. The sunlight reflected on Veridia’s moon ring. 

“Please, just come back. I miss you.” Rita told the moon ring like it was Veridia herself.

The mermaid decided to go back to bed, which was something she never did before, not even when she was sick.

Rita changed back, closed the curtains again and crawled back underneath the covers.

“I wish I knew where you are, I would come in a heartbeat to help you out.” Rita spoke to herself when she was back in bed.

_ She didn’t know where she was.  _

_ There was nothing around her- nothing but a fast field of gray concrete.  _

_ Rita looked at the void but there was just nothingness. Until there wasn’t. Right there on the floor she laid.  _

_ Veridia. _

_ Instead of the seeing golden gleam of her tail she was covered in red. She tries to run, to move, to do anything! But she was not going anywhere.  _

_ All she could do was weep as she watched the life of the mermaids she loved for so long drain out of her. _

_ The faint movement of Veridia's chest moving up and down suddenly stilled. Rita’s stomach dropped when she didn’t see Veridia breathing anymore, the mermaid was dead. _

_ “NO!” Rita never screamed like this before, not even when Harry died. Veridia was more to her, she always had been. _

_ The invisible wall was starting to turn black, and she couldn’t see her anymore. _

_ “Why?” Rita cried and turned herself around to slide down the wall and push her legs to her face. _

The mermaid rushed up and noticed she was covered in sweat and could hardly keep up with her breathing rhythm.

A knock made Rita look at the door.

“Who’s there?” She asked the person, trying to get her breathing under control to hide the fact she could hardly breath.

“It’s me, Mimmi.” Rita heard the young mermaid say. She wasn’t sure if it was right to tell her in, she never let anyone see her like this. Veridia was the only she let close to her.

“Is there something you need?” Rita asked the girl, but she was unaware of her voice quivering.

“Are you alright?” Mimmi sounded concerned.

“Please just go,” Rita started but stopped in the middle of her sentence, “I need some time alone.”

Mimmi left, walking back down to the others. She knew Rita needed some time alone, not only because she just told her. Mimmi noticed that the thing she expected already had been going on for a while.

Rita knew that Mimmi just wanted to make sure she was doing fine, but for now she needed to be alone. The things she saw in what she hoped was a dream weren’t real. She could not lose her.

~Mimmi~ In the grotto

“I’m worried about Rita,” Mimmi began when she entered the hidden grotto “She didn’t go to school.”.

“That does not surprise me.” Nerissa told her daughter.

“Mom, how long have you been here?” Mimmi sat down next to her. She expected her to be out in the sea with the pod, she helped them a lot since Veridia was gone.

“Not so long, I wanted to check up on Rita, but it seems like she is pushing people away.” Nerissa regretted that she didn’t check up on Rita the day she knew Veridia was missing.

Mimmi sighed, the fact that Rita told her that she needed some time alone, was something she didn’t expect from her. She sounded like she was already grieving, while she didn’t even know if Veridia was dead.

“Do you think there is something we can do for her at the moment?” Mimmi wanted to know if she could possibly mean something to Rita and help her through this part.

“To be honest, I don’t think so. Unless you find Veridia today, I think she will be like this. I can’t even blame her, they have been in love for such a long time.” Nerissa told her, but she wasn’t sure if she was aware of it.

Nerissa hasn’t been in the southern pod for long but there were rumours about it, and they were confirmed by the fact that Rita was acting like this.

“I’m going to find the rest of the mermaids, and maybe even Evie and Cam. I want to know what happened to Veridia, I can’t stand seeing Rita like this. She helped us so much.” Mimmi said. Feeling like this was the least that she could do for Rita. Who has done much for them in the past. 

~Veridia~ Somewhere unknown still

The days only seemed to get harder for Veridia, all of her magic was starting to fade. There was only a little left, after that she had no clue what would happen to her.

“Feeling talkative yet?” The man asked Veridia.

Veridia just turned her head away from him, like all the time she has done now. There was no point in talking to him, he wasn’t going to tell her a thing.

“Well, I have brought you something I think you would like.” The man walked to Veridia and had this glow thingy he called a tablet in his hands.

The screen showed Rita, she was pacing around in her room, up and down like she always did when she was trying to figure out things.

“What do you want from her?” Veridia asked. “Why do you so desperately need her?”.

“She might be something this world has never seen before.” He told Veridia.

“I won’t help you.” Veridia made her statement clear, she needed to protect Rita.

“That’s what we thought you were going to tell us, so here is a little deal we want to offer you.” The man said and placed the tablet away.

“What do you mean with ‘We’? I’ve only seen you so far.” Veridia grew confused.

“The person who paid me to take her, but I ended up with you.” He began. “So, listen up, we will let you go, and in exchange you bring her to us. If she tells us what she is, we will let her go, if she decides to lie, we keep her.” His offer was a trap, he would keep the both of them, she was sure of it.

“Do you honestly believe I will fall for that? I might not know what your real intentions are with her, but I certainly will not bring her to you.” Veridia made herself clear once again.

The man came closer to Veridia, and what followed after that was darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this chapter wasn't that long, but I promise the next one will be longer.  
> I'm always open for advise on how to write better.  
> Thanks


End file.
